The girls

It has a been awhile since I updated on the girls.  They are growing very, very quickly and I have very mixed feelings about it.  I truly love watching them grow and learn... sometimes I just wish they would slow down a bit.  They are at such fun ages right now, and although we have our fair share of frustrating moments, more often they make us, each other and themselves laugh.

Maya

- I continue to be impressed by her big heart.  She is such a kind and loving kid.  She loves her friends and gets excited to see them.  She is always helping younger kids when they need it.  She will do anything for her little sister and has become a bit frustrated that Laurel wants to do it all herself now and doesn't need Maya's help quite as often.

- She is very into Ariel, the Little Mermaid.  Which is interesting since she has yet to see the movie.  Last weekend she made me call her Ariel all weekend.  And she would use the fact that she was a mermaid to try to get out of things she didn't want to do.  She refused to go out to the car because, according to her, mermaids hate the cold and only like to be in the bathtub, on the beach or in a warm house.  She says that Ariel is the superhero that saves all the fish.

- We have had a couple big battles as she is a pretty stubborn kid.  Not sure where she gets that :-)  I have tried the approach that seems to be recommended by all parenting books and friends... give them two choices so they feel like they have some control.  Unfortunately that doesn't work for Maya, she just sits there and tells me that, "I am not giving her good plans".  I am still figuring out a good way to deal with these fits!

- I am always impressed with her thirst for learning.  She has asked me to teach her to read.  She told me she wants to learn how to tie her own shoes.  She came home from school very excited because she was learning math.  She is thriving in her new pre-K class at school.  She is a smart kid who will go far in life. 

Laurel

- I can't believe that two is just around the corner.  She has grown and changed so much lately... I look at her and no longer see the baby she once was.

- "Yelf" is her new favorite word (she pronouces the 's' at the beginning of a word as a 'y').  She wants to do EVERYTHING all by herself.  And you better not try to help her in anyway or she will start all the way back at the beginning.  Climbing into the car has become time consuming!

- She is a very active little girl and loves to dance, run and jump.  Huge grins the entire time.  I think her bike is her favorite thing, she talks about it constantly.  She loves to do row, row, row your boat.  Maya taught her ring around the rosy and she thought it was the greatest game ever invented.  She climbs everything.  And it makes me very nervous because she appears to be fearless and doesn't hesitate to just jump right off.

- She loves coloring, however, unlike her sister she doesn't find it necessary to keep the coloring to paper.  I walked in and found her coloring the inside of her ears.  She is always coloring her hands.  She was pretty upset with me when I stopped her from coloring on her chair. 

- She always wants to be "nakey" and loves to run around in the buff.  We need to build in a little extra time each time we change her clothes to allow for this.

- She is still a pretty good eater, however her new favorite food is, "mac cheese".  If allowed, she would eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I'm pretty sure she could put away half a box herself.

- She is a cuddly, snuggly little girl.  The day doesn't start out right unless I get 5 minutes of Laurel hugs while she wakes up.  She still sleeps with her blanket and has added a little stuffed puppy (that she calls woof) to the nightly routine.  We made the mistake of leaving one or the other at daycare a couple times and it took some sneaky tactics to get her to go to bed without them.